Is One Week Marketing a Scam?

One Week Marketing is a training guide on how to make money online created by Jennifer, aka Potpiegirl, a well known internet marketer.

I’m happy to report that her product is not a scam, but I do have issues with certain things she recommends and would like to explain them here if you decide to try it.

One Week Marketing in a nutshell:

You learn how to do affiliate marketing, which is the process of promoting products (in this case on Amazon) through making websites on Squidoo (called lenses). Squidoo carries high prestige on search engines and their lenses generally rank high and are able to receive a lot of traffic (visitors).

The price of the product is $97 in which you get access to a members area with 7 training modules. Each module comes with tasks you must complete and some feature videos explaining what you’re doing.

The good news is that the training is set up for complete newbies so you’re unlikely to get lost. Here is a picture of how it looks inside the product:

Overall the product is very solid and there is a lot of good information. Jennifer (Potpiegirl) is also someone I have known about for quite sometime. She does have a good reputation in the online marketing community and is well known for being honest, upfront and has helped a lot of people. One Week Marketing is certainly a good product, but it does have holes as I’m about to explain. 

The holes: 

1. Squidoo. I have major problems with using this place. Yes Squidoo does get you good rankings on Google and yes you can make lenses for free which means there’s no need to make your own websites (even though this is preferred), but it’s a very risky play.

Squidoo has become very difficult to work with as of late. You can promote Amazon products, but if there’s any other things you try to promote there such as Clickbank products which usually pay a lot more, your lens will likely get flagged and shut down forever. 

Squidoo is notorious for terminating lenses and shutting down people’s accounts, whether for TOS violations or if they just plain want to. I was someone who once depended on this place for income and I never violated their TOS, yet I and so many felt their fury. 

Building a Squidoo lens is risky because you put all your potential online business in the hands of a company which can turn you off anytime they want. And history has shown that they DO this. Here’s why Squidoo became this way. 

Also, an update…

It’s been taken over by Hubpages which is the same thing, with the same core cons.

2. The price. I just think it’s too high. Yes you get Good training and can certainly put it to Good use, but it’s a piece of the pie of online marketing and I personally believe the price here is just too high. 

3. The training: The internet is growing constantly and a lot of the information One Week Marketing possesses is and will become less and less useful, unless they update which I haven’t seen since 2012 and a lot has changed since then in terms of how to rank on Google as well as other opportunities that has arisen. 

Nowadays (2014) it is MUCH better to build your own website. You have FULL control over it. Yes it doesn’t carry the same rank weight as Squidoo, but you can reach that level and even higher with your website if you build it’s content. For that I recommend proper training, which you can get at my #1 recommended place. That area constantly updates information on online marketing and charges way less than this product. 

Pros:

• Good, honest information on making money online.
• Great tutorials for beginners.
• Jennifer (creator) has a good reputation in the online marketing community.

Cons:

• Very risky to use Squidoo.
• Some training outdated. 
• The cost is a bit too high for my taste. 

Final Score: One Week Marketing.

Yellow Flag

3 out of 10 stars. Honest high quality training, but outdated (Squidoo is down and article marketing is dead). See #1 recommendation.

Final thoughts:

I like Jennifer’s product. Were it 2012, I would have rated it much higher, but it isn’t. The internet as well as ways to make money on it are evolving. One Week Marketing’s methods still work, but they don’t carry as much weight as before, which was a major issue for me and why I said the price is just too high. 

It’s understandable that A LOT of people are looking to make extra money online and don’t want to bother with making their own websites or building online businesses. They just want that something extra every week/month to make ends meet and Jennifer’s product is perfectly suited for them. But what you need to understand is if you’re part of this crowd, you need to adapt if you hope to make it.

You can make websites in a MUCH easier fashion today than you can begin to imagine.

In fact in some instances, making websites is easier than making a Squidoo lens. If you don’t believe me, try this tutorial. You’ll have a website ready in a minute. You need to have your own website nowadays if you hope to make it anywhere. And the beauty is that it’s YOURS. No one can shut you down (unless you do something illegal).

Finally the training. you can’t just go on making lenses and think it’s going to be forever.

Like I said before, Squidoo is VERY unpredictable with their banning habits and there’s been people whose entire fortunes which were made there were gone instantly because Squidoo chose to shut them down. And when they did, there was NO negotiating with them. Building any form of online business on that site is like sitting on an active volcano. 

Finally the training. It’s legit. It’s honest. But it’s limited.

You need updated training and a wider range of information. It’s important as not everyone can do the same things as in One Week Marketing. Maybe you want to go further. Maybe you have other preferences. Maybe’s are going to arise and in those situations you need an all in one place to help you sort them out and give you guidance on what to do. Like I said before, my #1 recommendation is in my opinion the perfect place for that and is very newbie friendly. 

To conclude, One Week Marketing is good, but it comes with great risks which for me make it not worth doing. But that’s me and you can certainly try it on your own. Jennifer is a great person and I believe you can trust her. But keep an open mind at the same time and don’t put all your eggs into one basket. I just feel with Jennifer’s product that’s what you’re essentially doing and that’s not something I would ever recommend.